In the world of social media, today is #ThrowbackThursday. So I am going to make some Thursdays the same here too. I love history. I also love it when I…
Category: <span>Kenya</span>
Sometimes, all it takes for me to spill out paragraphs and paragraphs of emotion is one simple sentence I read. It triggers so many other things. Like right now. I…
By Ken Mwirigi
Part I
It was the first Valentine’s Day I was spending with a person. I was relatively new in this relationship business, so the fears and jitters I had were real. I could not think of ways of coming up with a perfect surprise, at least to impress the person. The furthest I had gone in the ‘treating’ business was occasionally throwing in ‘smokie chinjaz’ when we took a stroll to the Stage to procure ka-quarter ka supper. You see, we had a lot in common. We played the same game, which gives you an idea on how we met. Unlike Tedd Mosby, I did not have a story to tell. I just saw the fundamendoz while on the pitch and fisi mode kicked in. Two days and we were locked. Again, back then, I was not like the current me. Closed.
Naam, umesoma vyema. Sina uhakika kama wahenga wa jadi wangekubali mada kadha katika vitabu vyake. Wallah Bin Wallah ni gwiji wa kufahamika nchini kwa uandishi wake lakini kuna kero nimekuwa…
Announce your arrival, way before the day, to ensure you get to a place to spend the night in Main Campus. Otherwise you will end up walking to the venue and perhaps not even make it to the ceremony.
Bring your own camera, despite everyone else bringing theirs and tagging you incessantly on Facebook. You have to record these memories.
The day is finally here with us. I graduate from the unparalleled Moi University on the 17th of December 2013. Let us all breathe a sigh of relief. My endless posts on my dissatisfaction in the institution are almost over now. It has been an interesting journey. If it was not for Moi University, I probably would not have started this blog. We owe it that, if not anything else. I travelled to Moi this Wednesday the 11th to collect my ‘academic attire’ or, in layman’s terms, graduation gown (pictures coming soon). During the journey, I jotted this down:
5th October 2013. I had made up my mind. I was going to weave my hair and deal with the consequences later. I love my hair but had been mistreating…
I wake up quite effortlessly today. It’s Friday, I can smile at how fast the week ended. In addition, I can’t wait to get out of the house and meet…
“Hi Shiku!”
“Hi there.”
“How’s school?”
“School? What school?”
Okay, people. It has come to my attention that some of you think I am still in school (going by the messages I am receiving on phone and Facebook). Well, here is the news. I am no longer a student. I cleared from Moi University on Tuesday the 9th of July 2013.
- Is on his last semester of his 8-4-4 and age is catching up. Either that or he has thrown caution to the wind. He has no idea what courses he’s taking. If he has, he has no knowledge of their titles, leave alone their codes. He never missed classes in earlier years but today, attending lectures is the exception, not the rule.
- Will remember that registration forms are filled on the day before exams, she will then scribble on some course registration form very fast, forge the signatures then fill in an examination course form. It will then hit her that she has not paid her fee yet. She’ll rush to that tiny National Bank and stand in an endless line. Back in the day, she paid her fee a month before the opening date, a good faithful freshman.
I live in a room that offers a vantage point to Hostel K and L entrances. When I say Hostel K and L, I am referring to the ladies’ hostels, make no mistake. All the same, I will tell you about the men who frequent both hostels. That common joke about the number of men who’d emerge from either hostel in the event of a fire is very true. I will describe them to you, one by one. I will do this using Hostel L since what I see there is replicated in K. (You may think I have a lot of free time; I will let you be the judge of that.)
When you have spent four years in an institution of higher learning, you learn a lot from simple observation. I have seen and heard enough to authoritatively categorize campus couples into five types.
You are seated at home enjoying a movie or getting warm by the fireplace. Your phone rings. Almost by reflex, you pick it up and hit a button. Ah, it’s your friend from class. He’s remembered me after three months, you think to yourself, must be something important. You sit up and take in the contents of the text. “Sasa, my dear! Nimeona kwa 3rd Eye ati tunafungua next week.”
Pause.
Maybe you are not reading it right. You read it again.
So you won’t marry a campus chiq, huh? But did you pause to think, even for a moment, that maybe I do not want to be married to a campus dude? You are not the only one with a choice to make, you know?
The other day there was outrage from my fellow campus ladies who could not understand why a man would not want to marry them. I have good news for you sisters; there are plenty more fish in the sea and that sea is much bigger than Moi University. No one should make you think you do not have a choice.
He sits across me in class. The other day, he told me he loved me. I don’t know why but he did. After three whole years, he has either seen me in another light or gathered enough courage to tell me so. It’s now or never.
Maybe he did it to test me, to see whether I am as hard-to-get as he had thought.